◙ Li’l PINCH (←thang) ◙ pdib (←maker) ◙ not sayin’ (←just sayin’) ◙ shuh-ZAM! (←hyperbole)

[CaptSteve]

There is a specific drill the pilots will follow in the event of an avionics smoke warning and to make a long story short (it's a very complicated failure) it could result in Emergency Electrical situation. To help you understand, if smoke is sensed in that avionics bay the pilots will start to de-power systems to isolate the problem. If all fails the pilots will end up shutting down all electrics and ending up with Emergency Electrical situation (as it's called).
This will basically turn the fly-by-wire protections off and the aircraft has only very basic controls. All instrumentation screens in the cockpit go off except two screens on the Captain's side. Now put this into context with a cockpit full of smoke (at night) and the pilots with Oxygen masks on and multiple warnings going off and you'll quickly picture the situation we're talking about.

This is probably the most serious failure an A320 can experience and above all if the pilots aren't calm and collected it could get really bad as far as loss of situational awareness real quick.

 

[CaptSteve]

Also, the ACARS data reported smoke in a bathroom at 02:26 followed by an avionics smoke alert one minute later. The final ACARS data was two minutes after that as 02:29.

ETA: Oops - didn't see your post Steve. My internet connection is dog slow right now.

The fact that cabin/toilet smoke was detected before the avionics smoke indicates either a cabin/toilet fire which will later eventually trigger an Avionics smoke warning. Remember we're talking about a closed environment and if there is smoke in the cabin it will eventually even trigger the avionics compartment detectors as cooling in there is from the air-conditioning system which circulates air in the aircraft.
Again the pilots are trained to recognize air-conditioning smoke vs avionics smoke vs cabin fire/smoke and the procedure they should follow is totally different in each case.

 

[CaptSteve]

For those wondering what ACARS is, it's a digital datalink system providing messages from the aircraft to maintenance on the ground automatically. So the aircraft ACARS will notify Egyptair maintenance that a list of failures occurred in flight automatically. It stands for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System.
So at 02:29 Egyptair knew that the ACARS reported several system failures

 

[Rickajho]

When we are spltting hairs that close - only the one minute between the ACARS report for smoke in the bathroom and then avionics... just wondering if that is a de facto time line for which event happened first.

Then again, probably over-thinking this right now.

 

[TamiPac]

For those wondering what ACARS is, it's a digital datalink system providing messages from the aircraft to maintenance on the ground automatically. So the aircraft ACARS will notify Egyptair maintenance that a list of failures occurred in flight automatically. It stands for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System.
So at 02:29 Egyptair knew that the ACARS reported several system failures

Having your explainations on this is invaluable to me, thank you Steve!

 

[CaptSteve]

When we are spltting hairs that close - only the one minute between the ACARS report for smoke in the bathroom and then avionics... just wondering if that is a de facto time line for which event happened first.

Then again, probably over-thinking this right now.

The 1min difference is quite surprising because it must have been a huge source of smoke in the toilet/cabin to be detected just one minute later in the avionics bay under the cockpit.

I'm reading now that at 02:26 the ACARS transmitted the right (First Officers side) window being opened. This is something that cannot happen with the aircraft being pressurized at 37,000ft. Even if he tried he would not be able to open the window if the aircraft was pressurized.
So I can only assume the media is reporting wrong information or there's a problem with the timeline they're reporting

 

[Aal_]

Cap do you think a bomb might have gone off in the toilet?

 

[CaptSteve]

Cap do you think a bomb might have gone off in the toilet?

No Aal I doubt that, it wouldn't cause smoke more likely and it would certainly cause an instant decompression.

I think the media is reporting some things out of context and my gut feeling is that there may have been a in-flight fire and the guys up front did an emergency descent (absolutely correct thing to do) but perhaps throughout the descent the situation got out of control. Radar data shows the aircraft at about 20,000 to 15,000 feet making uncontrolled spirals indicating that by that time either the airframe was overstressed (structural failure) or simply out of control.
The only consolation in this sad event is that we should have answers from the DFDR's and the debris recovered

 

[CaptSteve]

Sorry Pete for "hijacking" your thread, I know this stuff doesn't belong here but just trying to help people understand

 

[Megan Kogijiki Ratchford]

Sorry Pete for "hijacking" your thread, I know this stuff doesn't belong here but just trying to help people understand

And doing a very good job at that, thank you Cap! Terrible things happening with no understanding of the actual protocols involved is difficult for me to quantify. This helps a great deal.

My thoughts are with you and yours Tamer, I'm so very sorry...

 

[supertrunker]

This is how it went:



T

 

[TamiPac]

This is how it went:



T

Sergeant Sensitivity to the rescue!

 

[supertrunker]

Aircraft avionics - meh! The best bomb is one that you set on a timer and are not sat on personally.

Because then your expertise is not wasted and you can rinse and repeat. Where it detonates is one of those 'who cares' things. For maximum damage, over a city would be good, no?

You realise that the line to get on a domestic flight in the US now takes over 2 hours? It used to be like boarding a bus.
International flights are worse.

Stiff upper lip. Every airport should have a perimeter where people are scanned and x-rayed (then my dentist can sod off) before they are allowed into the area. And the flying public should accept that the odd loss is regrettable and also inevitable, in the same way that 19000 people were killed on the roads here in 2015.
http://www.newsweek.com/us-traffic-deaths-injuries-and-related-costs-2015-363602


T

 

[CaptSteve]

.......and on that note from T I'm off to Sydney, Australia. Talk to you folks in 16 hrs from down under (Doffyland)

 

[supertrunker]

Check under your seat Steve! Oh no - it's that's sexy flight co-pilot! The one with the blonde hair!

Once upon a time in England and Ireland, car bombs and bombs in waste bins were a regrettable but frequent occurrence, referring in rather glossy terms these days as 'the troubles'.

Pretty troublesome i'd say. But not so much you'd miss work.

i remember bomb alerts in areas of London and it'd be "evacuate the area - we have received a credible bomb threat" - 'piss off - this train ticket cost me 20 quid and shop i will'. So we did.



T

 

[Kentastic]

.......and on that note from T I'm off to Sydney, Australia. Talk to you folks in 16 hrs from down under (Doffyland)

Stay safe Cappy.

 

[Raynman]

Cheers Captn' Thanks for the 411! You ROCK!

 

[Doffy]

.......and on that note from T I'm off to Sydney, Australia. Talk to you folks in 16 hrs from down under (Doffyland)

Bah, Sydney. Too many cockroaches, big ones too

 

[Tamer El-Meehy]

Thank you Cap. This was very helpful and informative.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tamer El-Meehy]

And doing a very good job at that, thank you Cap! Terrible things happening with no understanding of the actual protocols involved is difficult for me to quantify. This helps a great deal.

My thoughts are with you and yours Tamer, I'm so very sorry...

Thank you Megan. The whole world is going crazy it seems